Scrum Master

Job description

Scrum Masters support the delivery team, and monitor and improve performance of the team.

They use agile methodologies, learning and iterating the product and processes frequently to meet user needs.

They work with Delivery Managers to remove blockers and support the delivery team so that they can maintain delivery throughput.

EL1 Level Equivalent also known as Senior Scrum Master Senior Scrum Masters work with and influence across teams, coaching them to self-organise, structure and manage their work and achieve their goals.

As a key source of knowledge of agile values, principles and practices, Senior Scrum Masters provide guidance on agile operating models and strategies for newly formed teams or projects and existing delivery areas, taking into account the context, team maturity, focus, priority, flow and value.

Senior Scrum Masters remove blockages/impediments, and work with Product Owners to optimise the delivery of value through a correctly prioritised backlog, aligning to the end state vision.

They coach and mentor the teams in agile values, principles, and practices, building a high performing dynamic and ensuring that the agreed agile process is correctly applied.

They support the team to negotiate priorities and goals with the Product Owner and protect them from outside interruptions and distractions.

They also support the team to establish and maintain velocity ensuring they remain on track to meet their agreed goals.

Senior Scrum Masters exercise a considerable degree of independence and undertakes a leadership role, with work performed under the broad direction of senior management.

They undertake complex problem solving and issues management and develop strategic relationships to identify opportunities, achieve outcomes and facilitate cooperation.

APS6 Level Equivalent known as Scrum Master Scrum Masters in Services Australia may work within the following scenarios: working within or across agile multi-disciplinary teams to support the problem definition, prioritisation, design, planning, development, implementation and acceptance of products; guiding individuals or teams to work using a range of different agile values, principles and practices to improve BAU functions; within a project management environment helping teams understand and use a range of different agile values, principles and practices.

Scrum Masters are servant leaders who enable teams to self-organise, self-manage and deliver through the use of agile values, principles and practices.

They guide teams towards structuring and managing their own work to meet their stated objectives.

As agile process experts, they educate and coach teams towards achieving an agile mindset, as well as enforcing agreed team rules and facilitating team cohesion, collaboration, coordination and communication.

Scrum Masters play a key role by addressing and removing issues and impediments to the teams progress and facilitating teams key events.

They support the team to negotiate priorities and goals with the Product Owner and protect them from outside interruptions and distractions.

They also support the team to establish and maintain velocity ensuring they remain on track to meet their agreed goals.

Scrum Masters work under limited direction of a manager.

They exercise both initiative and judgement in the application of agile values, principles and practices.

Scrum Masters help to balance the work of the team in the context of competing priorities, including contributing to planning, changes in workplace practices and business improvement strategies.

Scrum Masters support Product Owners to ensure there is an appropriate backlog of prioritised work items based on the overall strategy and overarching business objectives.

APS 6 & EL1 Equivalent level Scrum Masters should have the following Capabilities Collaboration: able to work collaboratively within a group, actively networking with others and engaging in varying types of feedback choosing the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion sticks uses initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them able to pull out issues through agile health-checks with the team to provoke the right responses.

Ownership and initiative: takes accountability of issues that occur and is proactive in searching for potential problems and solutions achieves excellent outcomes.

Agile practices coaches and leads teams in agile practices is an advocate of these approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team creates or tailors new ways of working and is always innovating.

Influencing: the ability to influence, change and impact decisions with both internal and external stakeholders.

Lifecycle perspective (applicable to team environment delivering a technical product): understands the different phases of product delivery and is able to plan or run these able to lead a team through the different phases of the delivery lifecycle understands and is aware of incident management and service support so that products are built effectively.

Operational management: supports the operational process of designing and running a product or service throughout its entire life-cycle understands best practice principles in new product or service development and supports planning and operationalising supports the team to overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service works closely with other operational delivery teams.

Delivering at pace: focuses on delivering timely performance with energy and takes responsibility and accountability for quality outcomes enables staff to work to agreed goals and activities and deal with challenges in a responsive and constructive way able to deliver using agile ways of working with a focus on problem ownership, product ownership, user centred outcomes.

Requirements Key duties and responsibilities EL1 Level Equivalent: Duties may include some or all of the following: coach teams in agile values, principles and practices and model the agile mindset plan, set up and facilitate agile event including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews and retrospectives assist the team to plan, understand and be accountable for achieving its goals anticipate and address/remove blockers/impediments that the team may encounter so the team can remain focused on its goals shape the design of processes and practices used by the team based on their maturity and ensure team adherence to the agreed agile process rules help the team manage and resolve conflicts and challenges, and play a key role in improving team cohesion, motivation, dynamics and performance create an environment of trust and respect where issues or concerns can be raised safely coach the teams and to be self-managing, self-organising and continually improvement identify and analyse risks and opportunities in relation to goal achievement or performance develop change strategies for consideration of team, and monitor outcomes in collaboration with the Product Owner, review and refine the product backlog, re-prioritising and re-assessing the relevance of tasks/stories negotiate with product owners and stakeholders to protect the team from external influences impacting their ability to meet the agreed goals co-ordinate with other teams as required to manage dependencies and support the team to deliver represent the team/s in meetings, and relay information from that meeting back to the team develop and deliver presentations, conduct rituals and events and be actively involved in communication and change activities involving stakeholders research agile trends, industry dynamics, frameworks and tooling to guide and improve the agencys use of agile methodologies coach newer scrum masters to build capability and lead a community of practice to facilitate continued learning and capability across the agency make significant contribution to innovation, changes in workplace practices and business improvement develop and maintain stakeholder relationships and networks including representing business area at meetings and other workplace events research, analyse and apply problem solving skills to develop innovative solutions to meet clients requirements.

Are expected to have the ability to: embrace and model an agile mindset to deliver business insights and assist organisational change employ effective servant leadership methods identify risks in applying agreed agile processes and design steps required to mitigate them develop and maintain productive working relationships with a variety of stakeholders to ensure positive outcomes make decisions based on professional judgement, risk evaluation and in the context of the environment work independently under broad direction and act collaboratively effectively lead, coach and mentor a team/s while managing competing priorities and changes in strategic direction make effective use of agile methodologies to build and sustain high performing teams communicate effectively with diverse audiences, including making use of strong presentation skills and tools resolve problems proactively, using effective and persuasive engagement manage conflict and negotiate effectively using appropriate strategies self-identify increased need for skills, or emerging/future skills required for EL staff such as; numeracy, data, storytelling, consultation, agile, growth mindset.

In depth knowledge and understanding of: Experience as a Scrum Master supporting one or more MDTs agile values, principles and practices and their effective application concepts of continuous delivery and product delivery lifecycle where relevant project management methodologies where relevant coaching and facilitation principles and practices team dynamics and factors that affect team cohesiveness and performance frameworks, legislation, policies, procedures and information management requirements relevant to the work area the agencys privacy, ethics, workplace health and safety and security protocols relevant business systems and tools such as Jira familiar with LEAN and KANBAN APS6 Level Equivalent: duties may include some or all of the following: build the teams knowledge of agile values, and principles, as well as techniques, processes and tools in collaboration with the team, develop a mutually agreed social contract outlining team behaviours, practices and agile process rules plan and facilitate agile ceremonies including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews and retrospectives assist the Product Owner with reviewing and refining the product backlog, re-prioritising and re-assessing the relevance of tasks/stories to ensure alignment with agile principles anticipate and address/remove blockers/impediments that the team may encounter so the team can remain focused on its goals negotiate with product owners and stakeholders to protect the team from external influences impacting their ability to meet the agreed goals co-ordinate with other teams as required to manage dependencies and support the team to deliver oversee new starters, ensuring a smooth transition into the team including introducing the social contract help the team manage conflicts and challenges, and play a key role in improving team cohesion, motivation, dynamics and performance create an environment of trust and respect where issues or concerns can be raised safely ensure team adherence to the agreed agile process rules and help the team to remain effective by stepping in to manage conflicts and challenges conduct agile rituals and events and be actively involved in communication and change activities involving stakeholders research agile trends, industry dynamics, frameworks and tooling to guide and improve the teams use of agile methodologies build capability within the team through strategies that include coaching and mentoring facilitate teams and enable them to self-manage and self-organise develop and implement changes in workplace practices and business improvement strategies and assist team to transition with change.

Are expected to have the ability to: employ effective servant leadership methods make effective use of agile methodologies to improve team performance communicate effectively with diverse audiences, including making use of strong presentation skills and tools anticipate and resolve problems facilitate a culture of continuous improvement develop and maintain stakeholder relationships identify, consider and manage stakeholder expectations and concerns identify risks in applying agreed agile processes and design steps required to mitigate them adapt to change and uncertainty and support staff through the process work independently under limited direction and act collaboratively manage conflict using appropriate strategies.

In depth knowledge and understanding of: agile values, principles and practices and their effective application concepts of continuous delivery and product delivery lifecycle where relevant project management methodologies where relevant coaching and facilitation principles and practices team dynamics and factors that affect team cohesiveness and performance frameworks, legislation, policies, procedures and information management requirements relevant to the work area the agencys privacy, ethics, workplace health and safety and security protocols relevant business systems and tools Technical skills Scrum Master qualification requirement to hold a Scrum certification for EL1 level equivalent role.

About the organisation Services Australia is at the frontline of government service delivery, supporting millions of Australians, and is front and centre of a vision to be a world leader in government service delivery.

Its using cutting-edge technology to build world class platforms and capabilities to help Australians get on with their lives.

The services required will enable the agency to supplement its existing ICT and digital workforce to ensure a high quality of technology and digital development for the Buyer with the flexibility to ramp resourcing up and down as needs require.

Engaging a flexible ICT workforce will enable the Buyer to augment its requirements for the major work programs being undertaken.

Criteria The buyer has specified that each candidate must provide a one page pitch to address all criteria specified.

This is equal to 5000 characters.

Essential criteria 1.

Measurement: Level 4 (SFIA) Identifies and prioritises appropriate measures, scales, and targets.

Supports projects, functions or teams in the development of measurement methods.

Specifies base and derived measures which support agreed information needs.

Specifies how to collect and store the data for each required measure.

Provides guidance on collection of data.

Designs reports and reporting formats.

2.

Methods and tools: Level 4 (SFIA) Provides advice and guidance to support the adoption of methods and tools and adherence to policies and standards.

Tailors processes in line with agreed standards and evaluation of methods and tools.

Reviews and improves usage and application of methods and tools.

3.

Organisational facilitation: Level 5 (SFIA) Facilitates workgroups to deliver defined goals and outcomes.

Provides support, guidance and suggestions to workgroups and teams to learn collaborative problem solving and improve their team performance.

Creates shared responsibilities and sustainable agreements with the team.

Implements and improves agreed team principles, practices, processes & ceremonies.

Recognises and works with the strengths and constraints of team dynamics.

Desirable criteria 1.

Employee experience: Level 4 (SFIA) Supports assigned co-workers in areas of uncertainty, such as, organisational contacts, communication channels, processes, job expectations and manager relations.

2.

Specialist advice: Level 4 (SFIA) Provides detailed and specific advice regarding the application of their specialism to the organisation's planning and operations.

Actively maintains knowledge in one or more identifiable specialisms.

Recognises and identifies the boundaries of their own specialist knowledge.

Where appropriate, collaborates with other specialists to ensure advice given is appropriate to the organisation's needs.

5+ years
Essential criteria 1.

A track record of delivering technology products in large organisations 2.

A demonstrated understanding of what makes for a great developer experience for external users 3.

Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams that follow agile and user-centred design practices 4.

Experience working on large Government transformation programs highly regarded Desirable criteria 1.

Knowledge, experience of, and relationships with the agriculture technology industry 2.

Delivery of technology to support regulatory decision-making processes 3.

Experience delivering to the Australian Government Digital Service Standard

Required Skill Profession

Other General